Kudlow again

I know I've harped on his self-serving illustrations before, but I couldn't let this morning's Corner post pass:

Isn’t it funny that news reports this morning showing that Sen. Harry Reid will in fact allow a drill, drill, drill amendment to come to the Senate floor seem to have triggered a $3 drop in oil to less than $122 a barrel. Is this a coincidence? I don’t think so. More like cause-and-effect.

If I've ever heard a more fatuous analysis of the futures markets, I can't remember it. FYI, Larry, the oil price that you're referring to is for the front month contract that has a September 8, 2008 delivery date. So what you're claiming is that oil traders are dumping oil that is to be delivered in a little more than a month based on some possible legislation that might lead to an increased oil supply a few years down the road? Nevermind that the oil markets haven't been in contango since you Ivy types started getting the pension plans to 'invest' in commodities (badly, I might add).

Just to keep this in perspective, a 2.5% move in the oil markets is well within one standard deviation of the daily range. So this $3 drop Kudlow is swooning over can be entirely explained by normal daily fluctuation.

UPDATE: so now one day later, oil is back up more than three dollars. I wonder what Kudlow has to say about this...

Perception is inference

This article in the New Yorker about the itching sensation shows how recursive the questions in ontological philosophy are:

The account of perception that’s starting to emerge is what we might call the “brain’s best guess” theory of perception: perception is the brain’s best guess about what is happening in the outside world. The mind integrates scattered, weak, rudimentary signals from a variety of sensory channels, information from past experiences, and hard-wired processes, and produces a sensory experience full of brain-provided color, sound, texture, and meaning

More than 250 years later, we are still trying to come to grips with Hume.

Threadjack

...so I'm reading this high-larious snark offered up on Mommy Needs a Cocktail, wherein we all join in and laugh at some humorless scold who takes parenting VERY SERIOUSLY, when someone farts out this comment:

I think Holly is a man because that is such a man thing to say….and we all know what they know about parenting!!

blink...blink

Well Patti, I'm sure your husband just smiles and nods "Yes Dear" while you lock his shriveled little balls away in your bedside drawer, but some men might take exception to that attitude. Your experience may have varied, but then you probably spent the first part of your life repelling any man with self-respect and the rest of it changing the diapers of the infantile companion who puts up with your misanthropy. Gods above, I hope you don't have sons.

Oh, and you're fat.

This is why we have teh Internets

I know I'm a total link whore today, but there is so much good stuff out there today! Maybe it's because I took my meds. Anyway, this one (via Marko) gives me hope for humanity while making me laugh my ass off. As the man said "Why do we get an education? To get the jokes!"

Snort!

ZMFG too funny!
Instant move to the blogroll for the Postmodern Conservative. Thanks Ilko for the intro.

Nice analogy, Marko!

Gun control is like a principal ordering his teachers to put tape on the mouths of all the kids in the elementary school because one or two children out of a thousand can’t keep their mouths shut in class. When the two kids in question simply pull off the tape and continue talking, the principal reacts by having the other kids’ mouths double-taped.

Must have!

ZOMG L33t T! I like the turtle cosmology one, as well.

In which race comes to the front again

Well, here's a good reason to be a white heterosexual man! To all my black lesbian readers, I highly recommend making the switch. But you know if you ever want a man, you will want to do it with a white boy like me.

Treat your love like a firefly

Oh no another Miranda Lambert reference! I'll try to keep those down a little after ten. Anyway, I'm sure this won't come as a big surprise:


You are Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)
Honest and a defender of the innocent.
You sometimes make mistakes in judgment
but you are generally good and
would protect your crew from harm.



Click here to take the Serenity Firefly Personality Test


UPDATE: One other thing to say about this: Boogerhook. Rule 3 violation!

Via Rachel (who I read every day but she's not in my sidebar because even though we've never met our relationship is totally dysfunctional) comes this important update on the Supreme Court:


Supreme Court Rules Death Penalty Is 'Totally Badass'

Google-fu

Via Tam first, and then pretty much all the other gun bloggers: using our spontaneous organizational google-fu to outrank the Brady campaign on the search term: carry permit holders.

RTWT

Read it! Excerpt:

A lot of shiny happy Republicans have decided that now is the time to celebrate the fact that Barack Obama has a winning style and can talk seriously about basic family values. They are sanguine about the possibilities that Obama can be once and for all the absolute positive role model for everyone. As Eddie Murphy once said, Can a black man can have a suitcase? Yes. This is what I call the Obama Effect, the idea that the success of Barack Obama marks an era of positivity for blackfolks, ie translates into posistive gain by racial affiliation.

There are two problems with this which should be readily apparent. #1 It's just role modeling and tokenism. #2. You don't know Barry and Barry don't know you.

#1 The problem with this and all black role modeling. Only people with racial hangups need black role models. And only people who want to affect people with racial hangups want to be black role models. It is one of the great temptations of my class of folks, those formerly known as the Talented Tenth.

I've been reading his blog for a few years now. The man has some good insights into the whole race thing -- he taught me a few things, for sure.

Wadda game

After enduring last night's marathon/error fest, it's good to get a day away from the game. The TV announcers spent the whole time in extra innings debating whether or not there should be a rule change to expand rosters. Well, how about having the players play more than one inning, especially when the game is close? Like, concept, ya know, dude -- if the game now counts for something, why not play like it, um, counts?

At War With Luck Book o' the day

Whipped out my flask of bourbon and sat down with this 'ol boy I picked up at the library yesterday. The author is an interesting old coot; from what I've read so far, he's got his own personal relationship with Fortuna as well.

Speaking of slogans...

Vive la liberté! Today's desktop:



Can't see that we'd be far wrong to bring back the guillotine for a reprise...

Slogans

I know that it's ancient history, but it just stuck in my head today: what's up with the Ron Paul rEVOLution slogan? WTF is that? is it about how evolved libertarianism is? Is it some kind of Echo & the Bunnymen reference? Really, I'm not just pretending to be obtuse, I really am obtuse.

Anyway, I'd think there were slogans with better appeal to the types of people who would vote in GOP primaries. Like

Ron Paul -- Get off my lawn!

or

Ron Paul -- because eff the man!

or something.

Embrace the goddess

Fortuna loves me lately. She is such a fickle one, though. That's why I'm at war with luck -- because luck is really just standard deviation experienced on a short time line.

As the book says (Fight Club) "in the long run, everyone's life expectancy drops to zero."

Well, skill works the same way -- at least in theory. If you have any kind of edge, in the long run that edge will shine through provided you have a big enough bankroll to stand the swings.

I don't just mean this about poker or futures trading. This core fact permeates every decision you'll ever make. Since we only have one shot at life, in the real world the bankroll sometimes isn't big enough.

And if you suck out, don't apologize -- just stack the chips and smile.

Nanny State Nation

Check out the video over at Reason TV:



Go Drew Carey!

Back from the Island

...and Pig was eaten.

Click on the pic for a link to the photo album:

View from today's porch

Catalina Island, CA.

Happy Birthday, Republic! Today we celebrate giving the finger to the Man.

Not gonna do it

Wouldn't be prudent. Ain't gonna vote for John McCain or any other rat bastard just because the socialists are again at the gates. You want my support? Stop pointin' at the other guy and do something to earn it.

Friendly question for Kim et al: if we ain't even close to needin' a revolution, then how come we're always one election from disaster? I'd think we could lose one and be fine. I'm thinking if we gotta lose a man, John McCain should be the one to take it for the team. Might as well lose the weakest link.